It's pretty frustrating at first, but it just takes loads of practice. A bit like learning to ride a bike :). Make sure you've got some good trees/anchors- you can get several tonnes of horizontal force going through the line.

saw some guys set one of these up in the park in the summer and then proceeded to talk about doing backflips on it whilst eating ice cream.
they 'tested' its strength by pushing up and down on it but never actually got on.
put me right off.

Our neighbours' bit of garden is open to ours and they have a slack line up over the summer (tension backed off when not in use). Good for a larf for a bit after work, nice activity to go with a BBQ. kids Ive seen on it love it Have beer, have a wobble. It's quite a short stretch, but all the longer runs introduce significant jeopardy - drops, rose bushes, vegetable patches and associated vengeance from her who grows the veggies.

It's a nice kind of exercise. It's quite hard work, mentally and physically, and can get knackering quickly, but then you let someone else have a go, stand about for a bit, have a couple of slugs of beer.

It can be quite addictive, especially with some spoken or unspoken competetion from like-minded friends. Everytime you come off, you want to get straight back on again - "I was doing really well till I came off!"